When you were growing up did you do the thing where you have a wall or a doorframe where you teach how tall you are and see how much you have grown?  That was always a thing in the Franklin household both when I was a kid and for my children as well.  It is fun to mark growth over the years and to see what has happened over time.  Paul prays in this prayer for our spiritual growth and in particular that our love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.  Let’s look at this prayer once again together today. 

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

The thing about growth is that there are things we can do to help it along.  With our physical growth we can eat healthy, get enough sleep, and even seek the care of a doctor if things are not progressing.  For our spiritual growth it is the very same.  I grew up singing a song that said, “read your Bible, pray every day and you will grow, grow, grow”.  There are other factors as well like surrounding ourselves with the right relationships that encourage our faith.  Regularly worshipping, and serving by using our spiritual gifts.  These things all contribute to our spiritual growth.  Perhaps we should have “marks” that chart our growth so that we can go back and see the work that God has done in our lives.  I pray that we would all continue to grow up spiritually and never stop growing. 

In His Grip,
APastor Dave